Fluck And Law

Martin Lambie-Nairn proposed a satirical television show featuring puppets to Peter Fluck and Roger Law, two illustrators and sculptors who worked mostly for print. The puppets, caricaturing public figures, were designed by Fluck and Law. They were assisted by caricaturists including David Stoten, Pablo Bach, Steve Bendelack and Tim Watts. Musical parodies were by Philip Pope (former member of Who Dares Wins and The Hee Bee Gee Bees) and later Steve Brown (who bandleader Glen Ponder in Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge. Fluck and Law had no television experience, but had for several years constructed plasticine caricatures to illustrate articles in the Sunday Times Magazine. They brought in comedy writer and National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra, whom they had met while working in the United States. Hendra brought in John Lloyd, producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News. They were joined by Jon Blair, a documentary producer. They then hired Muppet puppeteer Louise Gold. Development was funded by Clive Sinclair. At the start, in 1984 and 1985, the show was not doing well and was nearly cancelled. Several politicians found their characterisations offensive, although in subsequent interviews many were glad of the attention. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were brought in as head writers to save the show. By 1986, under their supervision, Spitting Image had become popular, producing a Number 1 hit (The Chicken Song), but the pair left to create Red Dwarf for BBC2. The show had a short-running dispute with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) over use of subliminal images, which are illegal on British television. Norris McWhirter claimed defamation from their use. Peter Fluck: He attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, a grammar school, then Cambridge School of Art (now part of Anglia Ruskin University). After Spitting Image finished its run, he moved to Cornwall to work as an artist. Roger Law: He was an illustrator and cartoonist for The Observer from 1962-5, the for The Sunday Times from 1965-7 and 1971-5. After Spitting Image finished in 1996, Law became the Artist in residence at the National Art School in Sydney, Australia. He subsequently moved to Jingdezhen, China where he makes large porcelain vessels.